Prosthetics No Longer Needed?: Hand Transplants from Donors Have Begun at the Sklifosovsky Institute

Surgeons at the N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine have begun transplanting hands to patients who have lost their upper limbs. This was announced by the chief freelance plastic surgeon of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Natalya Manturova.

According to her, doctors have made a breakthrough in medicine by restoring lost limbs. Such operations are the most complex in modern microsurgery.

A team of specialists is working on the new direction from:

• N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine
• Institute of Plastic Surgery and Cosmetology
• Sechenov University
• S.P. Botkin Moscow Regional Research Clinical Center
• S.S. Yudin City Clinical Hospital
• Guangxi University (China)

First Experience

The first successful allotransplantation of a hand in Russia (transplantation of a limb from a donor to a recipient who are not genetically related to each other) was performed at the Sklifosovsky Institute in April 2025.

The patient lost his right hand and part of his forearm. For some time he used a bionic exoprosthesis, but later abandoned it.

The man was offered a transplant. The operation lasted more than 9 hours. Sklif surgeons connected the arteries, veins and nerve endings of the hand to the injured arm.

Shortly after the surgery, the patient was able to move his fingers, and after three months he was able to greet with a handshake and hold various objects in his hand.

Read more materials on the topic:

• Produced by only 3 countries in the world: Rostec presented the LifeStream HEPAR complex to maintain the viability of an organ for transplantation
• From titanium to carbon composites: JSC CITO (Rostec) presented innovative prostheses for arms and legs for extreme loads
• Clear grip: PNIPU scientists have made their bionic hand prostheses more accurate